On the obverse the center of the medallic space is occupied by a representation of the Jersey as it is found on contemporary engravings. In the upper space one reads: THE OLD JERSEY. Underneath the ship an anchor is pictured between two skulls and bones. The engraver’s initial L is missing on this token. The reverse shows the same arrangement as found in all Sage’s prison tokens. The open shackles in half-circle in the upper space together with the half-circular designation AUG. B. SAGE’S HISTORICAL TOKENS surround the following legend: A/ BRITISH/ PRISON/ DURING THE/ REVOLUTION. The last word stands between two ornamental lines, the lower consisting of three big stars flanked on each side by a group of three small stars. Underneath one reads: No. 5.

The prison-ship Jersey built in 1736 was a fourth-rate ship of the line, mounting sixty guns, and carrying a crew of four hundred men. She was first used as one of the Channel fleet, later sent repeatedly to the Mediterranean Sea, to Spain, the West Indies, Newfoundland, and was active in several naval engagements. Already in 1747 the Jersey was laid up as evidently unfit for active service. On the renewal of hostilities with France, in 1756, she was refitted for service and again operated in the Mediterranean. She continued in active service until 1763 when she returned to England and was laid up once more. But in 1766 the Jersey was again commissioned and sailed for America in 1769. At that time, the active duty of that ship appears to have been brought to a close, since she remained out of commission from 1769 to 1776. In this year the Jersey was ordered, without armament, to New York as a hospital-ship. In the latter part of the year 1781 she was fitted as a prison-ship and was used for that purpose during the remainder of the Revolutionary War. “She remained until the termination of the British authority in New York, when she was abandoned to the fate to which she was justly entitled, and was subsequently overwhelmed in the mud of the Wale bogt, where she remains to this day.” An abundant literature of memoirs, letters, and lists of the prisoners tells the story of this prison-ship and its inmates by whose blood and sufferings the independence of the United States and the civil and religious privileges all of us can now enjoy, were achieved and purchased.

No. 5
City Hall, Wall Street, New York

Two more of Sage’s tokens have undertaken to memorialize other Civil War prisons. In design and execution they are similar to the tokens described here. No. 2 of Sage’s “Historical Token” series pictures on its obverse a large building and has the following inscription: CITY HALL, WALL ST. N. Y. ERECTED IN 1700/ DEMOLISHED/ 1812. The obverse is very similar to that of No. 3 A, the uncorrected No. 1 of Sage’s historical series, two skull and bones emblems having been added. A specimen is in the author’s collection. I. N. Phelps Stokes’ Iconography of Manhattan Island: 1498-1909 (Vol. VI, 1928. p. 539, s. v. City Hall) does not give, however, any evidence that this building was used as a British prison during the Revolution. It is different in the case of Livingston’s Sugar-House. which was located on the South side of Liberty Street, New York City, adjoining the Dutch Church graveyard east of Nassau Street. This building was chosen by Mr. Sage as the subject of another token, No. 2 in his series “Odds and Ends,” executed in the very same manner as all the other tokens. Its obverse bears the inscription: OLD SUGAR HOUSE LIBERTY ST., N. Y. FOUNDED 1689/ DEMOLISHED 1840.

2. Historical Medals

In contrast to the aforementioned tokens, No. 6 and No. 7 are historical medals in the specific meaning of this term. No description or mention of either of them have come to this writer’s attention.

The medal No. 6 measures forty-four millimetres in diameter and was struck in silver, bronze, and white metal. The American Numismatic Society has a specimen of each type in its collection. The obverse shows the “Old Sugar House, Rose Street, N. Y.,” a large five-story building, of which the front and side are visible. The space between the third and fourth story of the front is occupied by the number 1763, the year of its foundation, as the legend says. The space between the uppermost window on the gable front and the two lower windows has as inscription these letters: BRS. All windows are grated. Above the representation of the building one reads the following half-circular inscription: OLD SUGAR HOUSE ROSE ST. N. Y. Below, there appears this inscription: FOUNDED 1763 DEMOLISHED 1892. On the reverse the half-circular legend, A BRITISH PRISON, is placed above a small representation of the frontside of the gable. The latter shows the uppermost window in the highest corner, and underneath two more grated windows in a row. Above the left window the initial I, above the right one the initial S are visible. The lower part of the reverse is occupied by a key in horizontal situation being the ill-famed prison-key, underneath shackles are placed. The ornamental arrangement is in symmetrical correspondence with that in the upper part. In the middle of the space one reads in two lines: DURING THE/ REVOLUTION.

No. 6
Old Sugar House, Rose Street, New York